Having more refined production values than will be expected from a Hong Kong film of its period, this piece, its title a by-product of the Peter Sellers Inspector Clouzot series, supplies an emporium for the rather slight comedic talent of its producer and featured player Lawrence Cheng, in addition to dreary romantic and action elements that are merely ancillary to Cheng's mugging. He casts himself as Ma, a vainglorious and largely free of ability Hong Kong policeman who is quaintly mistaken by corrupt real estate developer Teng (Damian Lau) to be the head of the City's Urban Planning Bureau and, as a subsequence, assigned in an undercover capacity to implicate Teng for illicit dealings with Hong Kong officialdom, while at the same time attempting to court Julia (Rosamond Kwan), erstwhile lover of slain Yau, played by Tony Leung Ka-Fai, due to her possession of Yau's pay-off funds given to him by Teng. While Ma pretends to be a high City official, following Julia as she leads him into a shoal of incongruous adventures, he has plainly become immune to affection accorded him by his fiancée/first cousin, acted in a sprightly manner by Nini Li, who frequently endeavours to extract him from tight spots, including a climactic action sequence choreographed by Deon Lam and Tony Leung Siu Hung. The film benefits from capable direction from recurrent Cheng collaborator Gordon Chan, along with smoothly composed camera-work, all being shot in neatly accomplished sync-sound, and there are solid turns contributed by Lau, and Waise Lee as a police inspector, but a loosely focused screenplay tenders scant character or plot development, resulting in little intrinsic interest for a viewer in Ma's predicaments (not aided by his sporadic voice-over narration), and police tactics are embarrassingly inappropriate. A DVD package is in letter box format, its dialogue Cantonese with above standard Mandarin and English language subtitles being available; despite the somewhat lower case acting of Cheng, and a fundamentally formless, poorly constructed script, the film did quite well at the box office during a brief run, and would have been better known but for these stated weaknesses.
Add a Review
-
rsoonsa7 January 2007
-
OllieSuave-00716 May 2015This is a funny cop comedy starring Lawrence Cheng as blundering Hong Kong police inspector Ma Yu Long, who goes undercover to investigate tycoon Teng Kuo Chiao (Damian Lau), suspected of bribing city planning officer Ma Yu Yu (Tony Leung Ka Fai) to build roads to suit his needs and thought to be responsible in Yu's death.
This movie has a steady-paced plot, but the investigation scenes involving Cheng and the hilariously romantic chemistry between him and love crush Julia (Rosamund Kwan) are acted out well and are sure to entertain people. You will see a smack of gun-totting action here and there, especially during the second half of the movie, and plenty of dry humor and comedic relief that doesn't rely heavily on the slapstick stuff.
While a bumbling police inspector, Ma Yu Long sure tries his best to be competent, and the little love triangle between him, Julia and his Shanghai-ese cousin Tam Lan Hing just bring on another layer of light-hearted comedy to captivate the audience. Even Hing getting a little too close for comfort in the ongoing investigation brings out some added suspense.
Overall, it's good stuff here and one of the best crime comedies I've seen.
Grade A